Examine as many of the books in your library as you can and record for each one in your notebook:—

1. Title of the book; author's name; publisher; date of publication.
2. The kind of book as classified above.
3. What it includes or what animals or topics are covered by the book.
4. Whether the style is popular or technical, i.e. whether it is easy for you to read.
5. The general character of its illustrations and whether they appear to be especially helpful.
6. Comments on the value or interest of the book as it appears to you.
7. Select a book which interests you, for future reading.

CHAPTER II
STUDIES OF INSECTS

The effect of great numbers upon the structure and habits of animals. The use of keys in finding the names of animals.

1. FIELD STUDIES

Materials.

1. Boxes for carrying insects. 2. A net. This may be homemade, using mosquito netting or fish net and a stout wire. If it is to be used for a dragnet for water insects, the wire must be stout and the netting strong. Make the net twice as long as wide. 3. A cyanide jar for killing insects. 4. A few paper triangles for carrying butterflies. 5. A notebook.

Note.—Your instructor will give directions for obtaining the material called for in 3, 4, and 5.

Directions.

Look carefully and quietly in the various situations noted below. Do not be in a hurry. Weedy meadows or vacant lots and neglected roadsides are good places for your first trips. Note concerning each insect found: (a) its name or something by which to identify it, (b) where you found it, (c) what it was doing, (d) its probable food. Record these observations in your notebook. Make a special study of such insects as your instructor may designate.

Where to look for Various Insects

Grasshoppers, locusts, katydids.

Look along roadsides, waste places, gardens, especially weedy ones, weedy lots, and grassy meadows and pastures.

Crickets.

Under old boards, along the edges of board or stone walks, along fences.

Beetles.

Same locations as for crickets, and also on flowering plants, under loose bark of trees and stumps, in rotten logs, etc. For water beetles drag edges of ponds and streams.

Dragon flies.

Along water-courses, ponds, and swamps. Drag ponds and ditches for larvæ.

Bees.

On flowering plants, especially on large patches of wild asters, golden-rods, and thistles.

Wasps.

Sandy stretches,—especially along the water,—among flowering plants, under the eaves and roofs of outbuildings. Nests may be found in these latter places.

Butterflies and moths.

In fields where there are many flowering plants; look carefully on the leaves of plants for caterpillars, and for eggs. Also look very carefully on the under side of leaves, on twigs, and on the bark of trees for chrysalids of butterflies and cocoons of moths.

Bugs.

In same locations as for bees and grasshoppers and water beetles. Also on fruit.

Aphids.

On the fresh growing tops of plants.

Tree hoppers.

On trees and shrubs. Hold your net on the under side of branches and shake the branch vigorously.

Flies.

Around decaying substances, as garbage, fruit, etc.; on flowering plants.

Ants.

Sandy waste places, decayed logs, along walks, often in kitchens.

Note.—At night many kinds of insects fly around electric lights or into open windows, attracted by the light and may easily be collected.

Form for Field Trip Report

The notes taken on a field trip may be conveniently tabulated for permanent record in the form indicated below:—